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At AL 


Telegraph Company Library ° 


This special library series, asi or- 
iginally conceived, was to consist of 
not more than twenty articles and 
possibly not so many. It has been 
found advisable, however, to carry the 
series through the year and the twen- 
ty-second and last article covers a 
collection of unusual prominence— 
one small in numbers but large in 
service. 

The New England Telephone and 
Telegraph Company is among the 
public service corporations which 
maintain strong working collections 
of books and other sources of infor- 
mation. Their selection of material 
is unusually thorough and comprehen- 
sive, embracing as it does questions 
relating to labor in its various phases. 

The book collection outside of the 
main depository may be broadly 
classed as law, including state re- 
ports of the five states in which the 
company operates, Maine, New 
Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts 
and Rhode Island; United States Su- 
preme Court decisions; state legisla- 
tion of the five states; all text books 
on corporation law; public service 
commission reports of all the states 
and Canada. 

Electricity is a subject in which 

printed material is unusually short- 
lived and the collection of about one 
hundred volumes contains practically 
all of the most up-to-date authorita- 
tive text books on electricity, with 
special reference in its relation to 
the telephone. The accounting books 
‘include the principal texts. Thirty 
or more war books have recently been 
purchased to answer various service 
questions. 

The collection proper includes a 
great deal of material on all labor 
questions, hygiene, conditions, wages, 
etc., reports of the New England 
states, New York and Pennsylvania, 
publications of the United States gov- 
ernment, chiefly those of the Census 
Bureau and the Department of La- 
bor. The principal aim is to get new 
material in regard to labor—especial- 
ly the employment of women, of 
whom over seven thousand are em- 
ployed in the company. Larger ques- 
tions of socialism and collectivism 
are studied and more narrow ques- 
tions of lunches,. housing, clubs and 
societies of employees, libraries, sav- 
ings, morality, profit sharing, and the 
like. One feature is the information 
of corporate relations along the lines 
of government ownership and regu- 
lation; for example, theoretical works 
on the basis of rate making. This 
is a new field except the rate making 
in railroad literature. 


Library Has 2500 Books 


The book collection of 2,500 vol- 
umes, including all bound works in 
the several scattered locations, in- 
cludes standard works in economics, 
efficiency, pensions, insurance, mini- 
mum wage and socialism—all of these 
broader than mere statistical mate- 
rial. Every possible printed article 
which might enlighten the officers re- 
garding the employing of women is 
studied. For instance, one book in 
the collection is a novel stating the 
exact experiences of a working girl 
—how she lives, how she apportions 
her wages. 

There are several hundred pamph- 
lets which are weeded out twice a 
year for material which has become 
valueless. The book collection being 
seattered and small needs no card 
catalogue, but the vertical file mate- 
rial is indexed according to folders. 
The decimal system is used and each 
folder contains several minute sub- 








divisions of the subject. The index 
of the file contains about 300 cards— 
each card containing ten or more sub- 
division entries. Economics, labor, 
electricity, and the other subjects are 
all included. Although as a rule it 
is not necessary to use the index it 
is a necessity for those not familiar 
with the arrangement of the vertical 
file. In another department — The 
Archives —the complete correspond- 
ence of the company is filed by sub- 
jects making a comprehensive rec- 
ord of transactions and operations of 
the concern by topics. 

The magazine collection is small. 
It embraces’ economics, labor, voca- 
tional training and industrial educa- 
tion, both American, English and 
Canadian. These magazines are only 
of use for present-day information— 
for the practical use of the corpora- 
tion— and. are not preserved. The 
company also has a strong collection 
of general reference books, govern- 
ment reports, and recent sheet re- 
ports of English war investigations. 
The guiding genius in this work has 
found that invariably questions aris- 
ing in Europe, especially in England 
and Germany, regarding phases of 
labor problems generally arrive in 
the United States, some five years or 
so later. It is this world-wide policy 
of the company to watch develop- 


‘ments and their relation to our peo- 


ple that makes their services valu- 
able. 


Material for Scientific Study 


The library facilities of the New 
England Telephone and Telegraph 
Company are not along the line of 
welfare work for their employees. 
The material is rather for scientific 
study and investigation, to enable the 
concern to more efficiently handle the 
human element connected with their 
work and to be able intelligently and 
efficiently to serve the general pub- 
lic. The company has always main- 
tained a reputation for exceptional 
service, unique methods and general 
efficiency. This work has_ perhaps 
been present before the public more 
recently through the house organ, 
Telephone Topics, which has a circu- 
lation of about 15,000. This publi- 
cation is full of interesting data, both 
for telephone employees and the gen- 
eral public. 

The reference facilities of the New 
England Telephone Company, which 
are used principally by executive afd 
administrative officers and experts, 
began about ten years ago. The “li- 
brary” is not open to the general 
public. The majority of materia: 
housed there may be found in other 
libraries, but not so easily accessible 
nor with the expert guidance, without 
which the value of a collection is not 
on a par with what it should be. 

Edward A. Wilkie, a graduate of 
Boston University Law School in 
1880, has direct supervision over the 
details connected with this work. He 
was for many years a _ prominent 
practising attorney who made the 
study of labor questions his avoca- 
tion. 





*This is the twenty-second and last 
article describing the special libraries 
of Boston which have appeared serial- 
ly in the Boston University News, 
1916-1917. Owing to lack of space it 
was not included in the Commence- 
ment number of the NEWS, June 6, 
1917, 

These twenty-two articles with in- 
troduction have been written by Ralph 
L. _Power, Librarian of the College 
and Curator of the Museum, College 
of Business Administration. 





OAS 
rer v\ 


aN 


~ 
New 


England Telephone and 


Telegraph Company Library * 


This special library series, as or- 
iginally conceived, was to consist of 
not more than twenty articles and 
possibly not so many. It has been 
found advisable, however, to carry the 
series through the year and the twen- 
ty-second and last article covers a 
collection of unusual prominence— 
one small in numbers but large in 
service. 

The New England Telephone and 
Telegraph Company is among the 
public service corporations which 
maintain strong working collections 
of books and other sources of infor- 
mation. Their selection of material 
is unusually thorough and comprehen- 
sive, embracing as it does questions 
relating to labor in its various phases. 

The book collection outside of the 
main depository may be _ broadly 
classed as law, including state re- 
ports of the five states in which the 
company operates, Maine, New 
Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts 
and Rhode Island; United States Su- 
preme Court decisions; state legisla- 
tion of the five states; all text books 
on corporation law; public service 
commission reports of all the states 
and Canada. 

Electricity is a subject in which 
printed material is unusually short- 
lived and the collection of about one 
hundred volumes contains practically 
all of the most up-to-date authorita- 
tive text books on electricity, with 
special reference in its relation to 
the telephone. The accounting books 
include the principal texts. Thirty 
or more war books have recently been 
purchased to answer various. service 
questions. 

The collection proper includes a 
great deal of material on all labor 
questions, hygiene, conditions, wages, 
etc., reports of the New England 
states, New York and Pennsylvania, 
publications of the United States gov- 
ernment, chiefly those of the Census 
Bureau and the Department of La- 
-bor. The principal aim is to get new 
material in regard to labor—especial- 
ly the employment of women, of 
whom over seven thousand are em- 
ployed in the company. Larger ques- 
tions' of socialism and collectivism 
are studied and more narrow ques- 
tions of lunches, housing, clubs and 
societies of employees, libraries, sav- 
ings, morality, profit sharing, and the 
like. One feature is the information 
of corporate relations along the lines 
of government ownership and regu- 
lation; for example, theoretical works 
on the basis of rate making. This 
is a new field except the rate making 
in railroad literature. 


Library Has 2500 Books 


The book collection of 2,500 vol- 
umes, including all bound works in 
the several scattered locations, in- 
cludes standard works in economics, 
efficiency, pensions, insurance, mini- 
mum wage and socialism—all of these 
broader than mere statistical mate- 
rial. Every possible printed article 
which might enlighten the officers re- 
garding the employing of women is 
studied. For instance, one book in 
the collection is a novel stating the 
exact experiences of a working girl 
—how she lives, how she apportions 
her wages. 

There are several hundred pamph- 
lets which are weeded out twice a 
year for material which has become 
valueless. The book collection being 
scattered and small needs no card 
catalogue, but the vertical file mate- 
rial is indexed according to folders. 
The decimal system is used and each 
folder contains several minute sub- 








divisions of the subject. The index 
of the file contains about 300 cards— 
each card containing ten or more sub- 
division entries. Economics, labor, 
electricity, and the other subjects are 
all included. Although as a rule it 
is not necessary to use the index it 
is a necessity for those not familiar 
with the arrangement of the vertical 
file. In another department — The 
Archives— the complete correspond- 
ence of the company ‘is filed by sub- 
jects making a comprehensive rec- 
ord of transactions and operations of 
the concern by topics. 

The magazine collection is small. 
It embraces economics, labor, voca- 
tional training and industrial educa- 
tion, both American, English and 
Canadian. These magazines are only 
of use for present-day information— 
for the practical use of the corpora- 
tion— and are not preserved. The 
company also has a strong collection 
of general reference books, govern- 
ment reports, and recent sheet re- 
ports of English war investigations. 
The guiding genius in this work has 
found that invariably questions: aris- 
ing in Europe, especially in England 
and Germany, regarding phases of 
labor problems generally arrive in 
the United States, some five years or 
so later. It is this world-wide policy 
of the company to watch develop- 
ments and their relation to our peo- 
ple that makes their services valu- 
able. 


Material for Scientific Study 


The library facilities of the New 
England Telephone and Telegraph 
Company are not along the line of 
welfare work for their employees. 
The material is rather for scientific 
study and investigation, to enable the 
concern to more efficiently handle the 
human element connected with their 
work and to. be able intelligently and 
efficiently to serve the general pub- 
lic. The company has always main- 
tained a reputation for exceptional 
service, unique methods and general 
efficiency. This work has perhaps 
been present before the public more 
recently. through the house organ, 
Telephone Topics, which has a circu- 
lation of about 15,000. This publi- 
cation is full of interesting data, both 
for telephone employees and the gen- 
eral public. 


—The reference facilities of the New 


England Telephone Company, which 
are used principally by executive afd 
administrative officers and experts, 
began about ten years ago. The “li- 
brary” is’ not open to the general 
public. The majority of materia: 
housed there may be found in other 
libraries, but not so easily accessible 
nor with the expert guidance, without 
which -the value of a collection is not 
on a par with what it should be. 

Edward A. Wilkie, a graduate of 
Boston University Law School in 
1880, has direct supervision over the 
details connected with this work. He 
was for many years a _ prominent 
practising attorney who made the 
study of labor questions his avoca- 
tion. 


*This is the twenty-second and last 
article describing the special libraries 
of Boston which have appeared serial- 
ly in the Boston University News, 
1916+1917. Owing to lack of space it 
was not included in the Commence- 
ment number of the NEWS, June 6, 
TOD. 

These twenty-two articles with in- 
troduction have been written by Ralph 
L. Power, Librarian of the College 
and Curator of the Museum, College 
of Business. Administration. 


, 
i 
‘ 
y 
si 
i 





Gaylord Bros. 


Makers 








N.Y. 


21, 1908 


Syraouse. 


PAT. JAN. 

























